This Week in Lost - 4/6/10

Hot dang, this week's episode was definitely one of the better ones in the season, not that the others have been bad, except for Kate's, gah. Spoilers ahoy!

Episode 11 - "Happily Ever After"

Zach says: This week focuses on Desmond, who has always been a fan favorite and an interesting character, and this week shows us again how he is so special and important to the series. I'll let Jared throw in all the details he wants to about Desmond and his past, as well as the possible future, but let me say a few things about the episode itself.

Firstly, we see Desmond on the island, which Widmore forced him to come to for some vital reason. After being subjected to a deadly electromagnetic force, we see him in his flash sideways, which the remainder of the episodes takes place in. Here we see a few differences from his "real" life, where he works for Widmore and is actually his go-to guy. Widmore instructs him to take care of Charlie, and from there, the tale unfolds.

After an underwater adventure, Desmond starts remembering things, from the island, and as it would turn out, various other characters are having visions and remembering things from their other lives as well. It's pretty cool to see all of this unfold, and it would seem that that wise Eloise Hawking, or should I say Eloise Widmore, knows a lot about what is going on, and with the help of her son, Daniel, aka Daniel Faraday, some serious shit is about to go down.

Near the very end of the episode, Desmond comes to on the island, and through his vision, agrees to go along with Widmore's plans, although Sayid comes to "rescue" him, so we'll see how all of that turns out. Only 5 episodes remain, and the plot is surely thickening. I'm excited.
Zach's Score: 9.5/10

JDW says: Like most people, I love Desmond-centric episodes, and to be upfront, while this episode was still great, I don't think it carried the same weight and emotion as previous Desmond episodes. But, even if the emotion wasn't there, this episode is extremely important to this season, as it's the first to finally address the purpose of these flash-sideways. As it would seem, the sideways version of Faraday (now Daniel Widmore) is very much aware that everything in Los Angeles is not as it should be, and thinks that a strong energy blast may have caused it, one by his own hands.

Now this isn't the first time that Desmond has traveled into an alternate world where he is very much aware of his life on the island. You may remember the Season 3 episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes," where Desmond travels back to 1996 in his mind and the Season 4 episode, "The Constant," where he contacts Faraday in the past because of what he sees in the future. In both these cases, especially the former, Desmond always sees and hears constant signs that remind him of the island. This episode's interactions with Charlie were no different, so it was great to see Desmond, still being Desmond.

But, I also felt the episode was really predictable despite being great. Like, as soon as Widmore was acting nice to Desmond and then mentioned his son, and not daughter, I pretty much knew where the episode was going; heck, I even said it to Zach before the events happened and I was all right. Regardless, I'm just glad these flash-sideways seem to be going somewhere.
JDW's Score: 9/10

Overall Score: 9.3/10

Missed the episode? Watch it on Hulu